EMPIRE PROBLEMS

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LVI, Issue 41, 24 May 1935, Page 8

EMPIRE PROBLEMS

DOMINIONS INVOLVED.

WARNINGS IN AUSTRALIA,

It was perhaps a symptom of the present world uneasiness, or perhaps merely a coincidence, that three public men, in addresses delivered in Sydney on the same day one week, and practically at the same time, should warn Australians of Coming dangers, perils and problems. They were three men, too, whose word is not lightly spoken, says the Sydney correspondent of the "Auckland Herald."

One of them was Mr W. M. Hughes, Australia's war-time Prime Minister, and now Federal Minister of Health and Repatriation. He is still one of the clearest thinkers and most able orators in the country. Mr Hughes, in his address, appealed to the people of Australia to realise "that the true progress of their nation depended entirely upon an increased birth-irate and warned them that if this was disregarded the nation would be stagnant by 1968.

Australia, he said, was at the gates of nations in the Far East, which had exhausted their food supplies and wanted others. If Australians were to hold their vast domain, they must justify their occupation by occupying it adequately and developing it. The Australian population was almost stagnant. World opinion would not tolerate such a state of things, which actually was alarming.

MORE PEOPLE A NECESSITY.

The stream of immigration had not only dried up during the last five years, but more people had gone out of Australia than had come into it. Unless Australia was to rest content and wait for death like a man stricken with years of mortal disease, she must prove herself worthy of her heritage. She must have more people. The best immigrant Australia could have was a newly-born baby.

The second warning was that of Sir Thomas Bavin, M.L.A., New Zea-land-bom ex-Premier of New South Wales, and a man whose judgment is saner and sounder than that of many public men there. He emphasised in his speech the necessity of awakening public interest in vital international issues. This was partly due to Federal Ministers who did not take their colleagues in Parliament or the general public sufficiently into their confidence.

CONCERN WITH PRESENT,

The low standards of debate and conduct sometimes found in Australian Parliaments, he said, were due partly to absorption in industrial issues and issues affecting immediate material interests. Discussions on such topics easily became a mere competition in bribery for electioneering purposes. This demoralised men in Parliament, and tended to deter decent and honourable men from wanting to go there.

Australia's membership of the British Empire and the possibility of her becoming involved in quarrels, or even in war, arising out of European problems, made it imperative that Federal Ministers should form an intelligent opinion on those questions, that members of the Federal Parliament should know enough about those issues, and that there should be an intelligent public opinion.

ALLIANCES IN EUROPE

Sir Thomas Bavin said that there never was a time when it was more important that Australians should interest themselves in and understand the vital issues of foreign policy. Alliances in Europe, if continued, would turn that continent into a powder magazine into which someone was certain to drop a match. The policy and action of the British Empire was of enormous importance. A mistake by Britain might mean war, and, if war came, Australia would be involved in it.

The suggestion that any Dominion could remain neutral in a European war in which Britain was involved was pernicious and childish nonsense. Developments in the Pacific affected Australia even more directly and vitally. Scarcely any Australian in a hundred had any idea what the Washington Treaties were, and what a critical situation had been created for Australia by Japan's denunciation of them. Although he spoke in no spirit of hostility to Japan, or with any desire to attribute to her any unfriendly designs, the actions and words of the party now dominant in Japan made it clear that they wished to become the controlling force in Eastern Asia.

SOUTH AFRICA AND INDIA

The third address was that of Sir Hugh Denison, newspaper proprietor and business man, who has come

back from a world tour. He said that since the passing of the Statute of Westminster the Dominions had had the power to do what they liked. Ireland wished to have a republic. South Africa, which should have been grateful to Britain for the selfgovernment it had obtained after the Boer War, had made a trade treaty with Germany and a convention with Italy for the carriage of goods in Italian vessels. At the recent press conference a Cabinet Minister had, said that South Africa would take no part in future Imperial defence. It was not quite brotherly and not quite the thing.

Canada had a mixed population which was intensely loyal, but little troublous points there wanted watching. To satisfy an infinitesimal portion of the population of India, the British Government had introduced a bill to give some measure of selfgovernment, and thereby created grave problems, not only in India, but in all the British Dominions. When India was given self-govern-ment on the same terms as Australia Indians could not be kept out of Australia, and the white Australia policy must go.

Much good could be done for the Empire if there was a cessation of squabbling about restrictions, quotas and tariffs. The remedy was reciprocal trade facilities within the Empire to make it one complete whole.